Tom Lowe blog | Supertubes and surfing in Ireland | Relentless Energy Drink

Relentless-sponsored big wave surfer Tom Lowe fills us in on his October

In the latest of his regular updates, legendary big-wave surfer Tom Lowe tries his hand in some fierce competition, and gets back to one of his favourite spots on earth – the blustery climes of Ireland.

Supertubes in Portugal: a classic trip

"I realised I don’t like competing in small waves"

I’m sure you all would have seen and heard about the surf down at Supertubes in Portugal for the WCT? Well, if you haven’t, the waves were amazing! Believe it or not, I was invited to the trials on 13 October for the main event. I was so happy to be given this opportunity to surf with the best guys in the world. Obviously I was hoping for a massive swell, which didn’t happen for the trials but swell was due for the main event, so I thought, what the hell, why not go get some sunshine?!

To cut a long story short, I jumped up and down on small beach-break waves and got snaked to death by the other lads. It’s a competition - so what else should I expect? I didn’t make the main event. I was, and am, pretty gutted. However, I learned a lot while on the trip. I realised I don’t like competing in small waves. I stopped trying before I even paddled out. Don’t get me wrong – I love to surf in any conditions, but to force those strange lines out of the small waves feels out of place to me.

Aside from the surf, I met a lot of cool people (some of whom were my bosses from Rip Curl), surfed some great waves in between the competition and hopefully got some good shots! It was good to hang out with Owen Wright - what a humble, nice guy he is. You wouldn’t think he was second in the world right now! So all in all, I had a classic trip. Big thanks to Rip Curl for looking after me.

Early starts and frustration in Ireland

"We’ve been up at five most mornings, launching the ski at six and out in the line-up by seven"

As I type this, I’m in Ireland. I drove over here two weeks ago for a swell, however after countless hours on jet skis, which

I won’t go into, we haven’t scored anything heavy. It’s been a tough few weeks. We’ve been up at five most mornings, launching the ski at six and out in the line-up by seven. Now the clocks have gone back, we have been getting up even earlier. We do this early-morning hardcore stuff to get the right tides for the particular spots where we’re trying to surf. In Ireland there’s such a small window of opportunity, so we have to be on it.

Nobody can say we haven’t been trying, though. One particular mission stands out: driving two hours against 40-knot winds last week, myself and Fergal fighting through 15ft onshore lumps. We arrived at our spot and she was only 3ft. We waited for two hours, freezing our balls off, for the swell to arrive, but were denied yet again! That shit hits deep to the core, I’m telling you. Call me a softy but this was our third unsuccessful mission that week. Anyways, let’s hope this bad run’s over and tomorrow morning is pumping. The chart looks good. This morning I got some fun clips paddling small Rileys, but nothing epic - just a warm-up for Aileens!